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The award season is already in full swing with nominations, contentions and wins already taking place - animation studios and crews are eagerly awaiting the race for Oscar gold.

In a surprising announcement made by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Pixar's The Blue Umbrella has been omitted from further consideration for Oscar gold. Making it the first year since 2009's Partly Cloudy that Pixar has not been considered for the Animated Short category.

As surprised as we were at this announcement it only made us wonder "Why?". Did the Academy see the animated film as too photo-realistic? There are so many questions to ask on why this digital feat was taken out of the running. While we cannot dwell on the outcome, we should note that in every theater viewing we were at, we loved hearing the audible gasps (or moments of emotional silence as blue lay battered on the street) from the audience during the short. To us, this is a true win for Pixar and for the entire crew of The Blue Umbrella. To have the audience think that there were live-action shots included in the film (when indeed it was pure animation), combined with the amazing hand-held camera movements, score, lighting, design (and much more) really made us take advantage of the fact that a nomination would be eminent.

This omission also made us really interested in the other short films that were nominated - The 10 Animated Short Films that have advanced to the voting process are listed below along with links to view a trailer as well as additional information.

Subconscious Password- Chris Landreth, director (National Film Board of Canada with the participation of Seneca College Animation Arts Centre and Copperheart Entertainment)

Be sure to listen to our podcast episode 22 where we share our thoughts on The Blue Umbrella's omission from the Oscar race.

While The Blue Umbrella is no longer in Oscar contention for Animated Short Film, Monsters University advanced along with 18 additional animated feature films. The long list includes various studios as well as some films which have yet to be released - they are:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Epic

Ernest and Celestine

The Fake

Free Birds

Frozen

Khumba

The Legend of Sarila

A Letter to Momo

Monsters University

O Apóstolo

Planes

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion

Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury

The Smurfs 2

Turbo

The Wind Rises

The final Oscar nominations will be announced on January 16, 2014 with the live show and awards presentation airing on March 2, 2014.

Disney has also begun populating their annual For Your Consideration webpage. Be sure to keep an eye on the page over the next two months as additional information regarding the cast, crew, music and much more is added. At this point, the page contains the full screenplay for Monsters University as well as a full list of all categories that Disney•Pixar is attempting to garner nominations for (image below).